Conservative

This stencil followed on pretty nicely from Scotiabank. I can't tell you how happy I am with the crispness of the stencil and matching the Conservative logo so nicely. Again the stencil kind of speaks for itself but I think it works well on two levels. Either the party is dumb or the people that choose them. And really I know I should make equivalent stencils for the Liberals and the NDP, those other holy parties: maybe the three of them are our dear state's holy trinity.

At the Halifax Craft Fair in May I got quite a dirty look from the only old white guy that I saw practically all weekend. Sorry friend, your beloved party is never going to win the cities. And what kind of response did you expect from all these liberal artists?

Scotiabank

This shirt celebrates another stupid statement from 2008: A bank telling you that you are richer than you think.

Um, sorry but you got it the wrong way round. Really your customers should be calling you on all your excessive wealth dear Scotiabank. In August, Scotiabank reported that their profits had dropped to $931 million. Dropped? Isn't that sad? Well I guess that's a few fewer ivory back scratchers for all those unlucky shareholders.


So who's really richer than they think?

Chrysis

Well this one kind of speaks for itself. But happily thanks to all those nice commercials from GM and the Bank of Canada reporting that the recession is over, we have nothing to worry about. But if you want to remember the most popular word of fall 2008 then you might want to pick up this stencil.

Technology

I think that this is the best stencil that I have ever made. It is the most thoughtful and complex, yet simple. It's definitely a bit risky in Catholic Cape Breton but I would recommend it for anyone who knows what modern, industrial, civilized humans actually believe in. And I got a hint for ya, it ain't some dead guy hanging on a cross.

It makes me think of a book I just finished, Climate Wars by Gwynne Dyer. I had the pleasure of hearing Dyer speak at McMaster University when this book came out. He's just the right level of cynicism for me I think (he mostly knows we're doomed since the project before us is so daunting). He talked about things I had never heard of in relation to climate change and got me thinking more deeply than I had before. Unfortunately it did not inspire me with confidence in our chances. And his book unfortunately has proved to be a techno-fix masturbation about how humans can fix the climate. He even suggests (a bit tongue in cheek thankfully) that humans take over from the earth in managing the climate system. Ha ha, what a fucking joke.

But technology is on parade in Climate Wars. Space mirrors, shooting sulfur into the stratosphere with guns, making clouds from automated ships in the equatorial regions, growing meat in petri dishes. It's a perfect world, nothing to stop our beloved economy. And just makes me think more and more of the appropriateness of this stencil.

You've heard of the holy trinity I expect: Father, Son and Holy Ghost (who is the holy ghost anyway?). How about a new one: Civilization, Technology and Economy. Get down on your knees boys and girls!

First World No World

How many earths will it take when all the humans on this planet live like we do in Canada? Big cars, big homes, meat three times a day. Maybe 12? That sounds about right, except that we only have one earth and it's not ours.

This is the goal of the global economy ultimately: "prosperity" for all, or perhaps more accurately for a certain percentage of the population, since the World Bank and the IMF must understand that we can't physically achieve this goal. Or maybe they're insane. I'm inclined toward the latter statement.


So this shirt was created to remind people that as more people move into the category of First World, the less likely there will be a world in the end. You can't make a Hummer out of thin air.

Why not instead meet in a new place, neither First nor Third World? Where is that place? We'd better find out and quick.

Palestine

What's in a word? In the Middle East, a lot. For years, there were no Palestinians. They didn't exist according to people like Golda Meir. And most of the world bought it. The people of British Palestine were just Arabs, Jordanians or Syrians or Egyptians, certainly not a specific, unique group. Eventually, the sheer weight of sanity (and a few hijackings and suicide blasts) eventually moved people to recognize the Palestinian people, though no one is in a hurry to support them to a just solution to their conflict with the state of Israel.

But still no one will utter the word Palestine. Listen to the news, it's always West Bank this or Gaza that. Never Palestine; it doesn't exist. Yet. Not that I want to celebrate the creation of another oppressive and violent state on earth. But the name of this place matters.

Calling Palestine Palestine might actually change the world. And the best part is, you're unlikely to be accused of anti-Semitism for wearing one of these shirts. Well I'm sure that some people might try. But in the end it's just a word and that's all I was going for. A word, a powerful word.

And I really loved the prison stripes of this specific shirt. So many people wanted to buy it but I just couldn't part with it. It's too perfect an example of my work.

Fuck Facebook

Most people really like this stencil, despite the fact that they are Facebook drones (Facebookers?). Facebook, I think, is kind of like a 9-5 job, something you do due to a lack of options and hate every second of. But I guess it keeps you in touch with people, that's what most people tell me in response to this patch. But what kind of relationship do you have with a person with you read about their life on their digital wall?

I had an interesting thought about Facebook the other night. Talking with a friend about the commodification of the world I wondered where it would end. I guess ultimately the plan is for everything to have a price tag, or be associated with tiny pieces of paper or numbers on a computer. Good luck when air is commodified (though I don't think the morons that run the world will figure that one out before natural controls kick in).

So really, human relationships should have an economic dimension too. These social networking sites like Facebook basically celebrate and encourage the collection of "friends" like baseball cards. You don't actually have relationships with people of course, that doesn't matter; quantity over quality is the motto of the modern world.

Remember that kid who beat you up in primary school? Is he now on your facebook list? Fuck him and Fuck Facebook!

Subtract Economists

There's a great line from the Simpsons, you might remember it. The incomparable Lionel Hutz, sitting at the Simpson's kitchen table, asked the family to imagine a world without lawyers. They imagined a world of peace and happiness and joy. He shuddered.

Perhaps now economists are the new lawyers. Most people should be pretty pissed off at the people that have designed the shell game known as the global economy. How many people are living in tent camps outside of major cities having been evicted from their homes? How many people have lost their retirement incomes in a moment? Why isn't Allan Greenspan hanging from a tree? Why are the rich, the economists all collecting government bailouts while the poor, with their ranks growing every day, all toil and rot?

Originally I designed this shirt with a shotgun (easy for subtracting things) but it didn't look good on printing so I went back to school for the old subtraction formula.


Thanks to Drew for being such a good sport!

Fashion File

So I want to share my latest stencils with the world. If you like any that you see you are most welcome to copy my ideas (not for profit of course) or contact me and I'll mail you a shirt or patch, depending on what catches your eye. If you're in Halifax you can catch my table at the Halifax Craft Fair at the North Street Church, September 12-13.

I've got some new ideas and I'm going to do my best to post them here as I develop them. There are some missing still but I'll get them up eventually. As before, I'll post some of my thinking with each stencil.

These pictures were all taken at the Evolve Music Festival with a bunch of beautiful humans acting as my sexy models. Ah free labour!

Here's links to some of my old shirts, in case you'd forgotten:

I Am Compost
One Child Policy
Ethanol = Poverty
Stop at Two (kids)
Vote for Human Extinction
Self-Hating Human